There was this famous (Or is it ‘infamous!’) rallying call of president he used to ‘cut Hillary Clinton down to her size.’ His supporters chanted “Lock her up!” “Lock her up!” Well in all truth and in all fairness given all the arrogant, immoral, double-standard things being done against us over the past months or even years by some of our ‘foreign guests’ we should have long gone out into the streets and chanted “Kick them out!” “Kick them out!” we didn’t; Of course, our over-the-edge niceness is making us pay delay. Now we‘re supposed to pay nice kids on the block when the very people supposedly here to ‘help’ us are cutting the ground from under us! Much behind the curtain shenanigans have been happening in a country noted for welcoming its guests with open arms, and tolerating the excesses of quite a number of them.
Seven UN staff have been asked to leave the country for meddling in our internal affairs. Frankly, that shouldn’t have been the real news as everybody has been expelling everybody over the years and not as much of whimpers have been heard. The seemingly inter-connected ‘uproar’ from editorial rooms, to so called humanitarian agencies, to foreign offices further erodes our trust in some sections of the international community about whom we already have substantiated misgivings.
There is an Amharic pun which more or less says; “When an evil man calls from up there, an evil man responds “Yes” from down here; folks beware, this is meant for us!” That’s how the international community seems to be acting when it comes to Ethiopia. Even in times when there is nothing new on the ground they create it. It is like they have vowed “Never let them enjoy a good night’s sleep!” Of course, insomnia would have been some pandemic had we given substance to all the nonsense.
The UN said it was ‘shocked’ by the decision. Come again! ‘Shocked!’ and we thought that word has been deleted from the vocabulary over there. Shock is not when a country, in the interests of keeping its national security, expels meddlers. ‘Shock’ is when tens of thousands innocent civilians are displaced from their homes; ‘Shock’ is when millions of children are denied to grow up like children elsewhere because of the arrogant, despicable and again yes, racially motivated inaction of sections of the international community. ‘Shock’ is when entire families are slaughtered in their homes with wives forced to watch the execution of their husbands and no one blinks. Need more?
“We strongly condemn Ethiopia’s decision to expel seven @UN officials whose work is critical to humanitarian relief. The United States calls for this decision to be reversed and will not hesitate to respond decisively.” That’s from Secretary Antony Blinken’s twitter page.
Hermela Aregawi of CBS who has become more vocal as of recent weeks responds;
“Humanitarian? UN aid trucks (400+) have been suspected of being used to fuel war in Ethiopia. Unaccounted for 2 months – during that period thousands were reportedly killed when Tigray forces entered Amhara & Afar regions. Playing games w/ African lives.”
In another twitter post a Mark Leon Goldberg of UNdispatch writes,
It’s like they have a template titled ‘Condemnation’ on their desktop and all the need is to fill in the blanks. The haste to ‘condemn’ without first trying to learn the whole story, without doing some leg work trying to find out what actually the expelled individuals were up to tells volumes.
“For weeks, the Ethiopian government has been systematically blocking humanitarian relief from reaching Tigray. Now, they are expelling the UN staff responsible for overseeing the int’l aid operation. There will be no int’l eyes on the ground when the famine hits in full force”
Hermela Aregawi fires back ‘The evidence suggests the allegations from @undispatch are unfounded. And my goodness… “There will no int’l eyes on the ground when the famine hits full force.”.. What an offensively archaic statement.’
This is a world where we saw a working diplomat of one country was arrested and strip-searched under the very eyes of the world despite her diplomatic immunity and, except a few voices form her own country, the silence screamed! when it comes to an ancient and proud country named Ethiopia. it is a riddle ofsorts what bugs invade their brain cells.
“We’ve problems with the Ethiopians…”
“What did they do?”
“They expelled seven UN staff.”
“What! What are you waiting for? Send out a statement saying we condemn the action in the strongest terms!” Bingo! Hey sir, I couldn’t help overhearing. “Don’t you think a little more investigation would have been fair to all parties?” Come-on, let’s be frank here; is your problem with the term ‘expulsion’ or with the term ‘Ethiopia?’
I’ll tell you a secret that will make you fly. We discovered the miracle for cancer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the world shouldn’t be worried about cancer any more. We’ve made easier to cure than the common cold.”
“Hey! Hey! where is that press secretary of mine?!… Look I want you to release immediate condemnation of these Ethiopians.”
“On what, sir?”
“They say they have discover medicine for cancer and you’re sitting on your fat &^# doing nothing! How can they do this without us giving them the order? Who do they think they are! We’ll, show them who calls the shots. And use the strongest language saying we’ll retaliate.”
And “… this action continues a pattern by the Ethiopian government of obstructing the delivery of food, medicine and other life-saving supplies…;” Shock is here.
The story here is that the Ethiopian officials have hinted months back that there was unacceptable meddling in Ethiopian affairs and measures will be taken, and that wasn’t about wordplay., So what is all the fuss about!
A former supposedly high-placed Ethiopian (Is he still!) politico who has been acting rather weirdly for several months posted not-so-nice comments about the expulsion.
An Ethiopian commented; “You were not heard saying a single sentence about the massacre perpetrated by terrorist TPLF in the Amhara and Afar regions, hundreds of thousands of people who are displaced by TPLF and are suffering from destitute and starvation, the destruction of Hospitals, clinics, schools, private property, household shelters, including animals.” That goes to all of them! The crux of the matter is clear, isn’t it? Sections of the international community seemed to have sworn on the bones of whoever and whatever to keep us Ethiopians in perpetual confusion.
Days back they misinterpreted an Amharic term and accused an Ethiopian citizen of calling for genocide or something like that. Recently top officials on the northern Ethiopia publicly said that their enemies were the Amhara people. Publicly! And no one stirred! NO ONE! If those weren’t calls for targeting a clearly designated ethnic group what is?
A highly-dangerous and bizarre document was made public the past few weeks with details of of how to break up this country. And no one said; such …is dangerous. Is their real problem with the expulsions or the term ‘Ethiopia?’
Hey what is the story on those poor Haitians immigrants expelled back into the dangerously unknown?
On April 16, 2021 AP story runs,
“The Biden administration announced Thursday the U.S. is expelling 10 Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions against several dozen people and companies, holding the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.”
“We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere in our democratic process with impunity,” the president is quoted as saying;
Isn’t that what we Ethiopians are saying? “We cannot allow foreign powers or any international agencies to interfere in our internal matters!” What makes it right where the rich and the powerful say it, and wrong when we the materially poorer but the spiritually richer do it?
In another instant while much has been said about the trucks that just disappeared into thin air one int’l official suggested something like it might be because of shortage of fuel. Well, maybe he should refer to Blen Mamo’s twitter page for some A, B, C on fact checking; Blen writes…
“Shortage of fuel as an excuse for UN aid delivery trucks not returning is absolute nonsense.
@UNOCHA report on its official website states there is 291K fuel available in #Tigray as of 1st of September 2021 alone.”
So the pattern continues; “When the evil man calls out from up there and the evil man responds “Yes!” from down here.”
Ephrem Endale Contributer
The Ethiopian Herald October 3/2021
